Recorders of deeds may not reject multiple gas leases
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In what attorneys said is a significant win for natural gas drillers, the Commonwealth Court has ruled that counties' recorders of deeds are required by statute to record all lease documents presented to them, including single documents containing multiple lease assignments.
Kevin C. Abbott, of Reed Smith in Pittsburgh, who represented plaintiff Chesapeake Appalachia, said the ruling is important for oil and gas companies in Pennsylvania, many of which have incurred significant additional expenses and had to perform extra work as a result of some county recorders' refusal to accept multiple lease assignments in a single document.
The court unanimously affirmed a ruling by Wayne County Common Pleas Court President Judge Raymond L. Hamill, which had held that the Wayne County recorder of deeds' policy of refusing to accept multiple lease assignments filed in a single document was illegal.
Senior Judge Rochelle S. Friedman, writing for the majority, said the defendant recorder's argument that plaintiff Chesapeake had failed to prove either its own legal right to have multiple lease assignments recorded or the duty of the recorder to record them "lacks merit."
In the case Chesapeake Appalachia v. Golden, according to Judge Friedman, Chesapeake submitted 211 leases to Wayne County Recorder of Deeds Ginger Golden on March 29, 2010, but Ms. Golden refused to record them.
Judge Hamill issued an April 21, 2011, order granting Chesapeake's motion.
Ms. Golden appealed to the Commonwealth Court, arguing that Chesapeake had failed to meet its burden of proof.
The court, however, disagreed.
Judge Friedman pointed to 21 P.S. Section 351, which states: "All deeds, conveyances, contracts, and other instruments of writing wherein it shall be the intention of the parties executing the same to grant, bargain, sell, and convey any lands, tenements, or hereditaments situate in this Commonwealth ... shall be recorded in the office for the recording of deeds."
"The only situations in which a recorder may refuse to record a document presented to him are where the appropriate fee is not paid, where the document is not of the type that is statutorily entitled to recording ... and where the document on its face lacks a proper acknowledgment," the Woodward court said, according to Judge Friedman.
First Published February 13, 2012 12:00 am
